Well, basically the disc tray has stopped functioning on me. It happened a few years back and i put it away, and today i pulled it out again to see if i remembered right on it not working.

I had no problems turning it on, and the tray pulled out fine, i put in a game, and it pulled it halfway back into the console, then just stopped. I gently pushed it back in, but nothing happened as the console wouldnt register the disc or something. i tilted it forward a little bit, and the tray slid out on its own.

I tried turning it on and off a few times, but it wont move the sled anymore.

Perhaps someone knows whats wrong, and if its a broken gear or something thats messing with me? Someone adept in fixing old systems might be able to fix it for me? Preferably within europe? I dont know how these things work. Im not keen on simply trying to find a "new" working TRY, since my box and warantee slip etc are all matching serials..

Thanks and regards,
grimm

Edit: I couldnt find a Tech subforum, so i hope its ok to post this issue in the main forum.

Keep in mind that the Sanyo 3DO presents the most challenge for disassembly and proper reconstruction out of all of the 3DO consoles.
I don't mean to convey that it is difficult - it's just more difficult than the other consoles.

A couple of reasons for this added difficulty:

1) The Sanyo TRY has much more shielding to contend with when trying to gain access to certain areas. For optimum performance, you need to make a note of how these pieces are stacked.

2) The CD drive is attached to the top half of the console shell. This means that you have to remove all of the screws on the bottom half of the unit and then slightly lift up on the top half enough to reach inside and disconnect two ribbon cables. If you separate the two halves of the console too much you run the risk of damaging the ribbon cables.

3) In addition to the two halves of the console being screwed together, there is a small plastic tab at the front of the console that can very easily be sheared off if you do not take care when separating the two sides. You can't see the tab when the console is assembled but it will definitely make its pressence known when you attempt to lift the top half away from the bottom.

4) Once the top half of the console has been separated from the bottom half, you will still need to remove the CD drive from bottom side of the top half. This is another area where you run the risk of shearing/snapping off plastic tabs. The reason for this is that the drive cannot be removed without first pulling the drive tray bezel off, and it is held in place by tabs.

The FZ-1, FZ-10 and Goldstar models are all easier to deal with because of these reasons. The Goldstar shares a couple of these disassembly issues with the Sanyo, but it is still easier to handle.

If you have managed through all of this then you will be able to inspect some key areas of interest.

Here is a pic of the CD drive removed from the top half of the shell and sitting inside of the console. You should have a look at the white ribbon cable located in the upper left corner of the drive (just barely visible in this picture - I took these pics a while back for a project, but they are still applicable here). By design, this cable moves back and forth with the drive tray and is therefore a prime candidate for failure over time. There are other things to look for, but this is a good start. Start by checking the other end of it BEFORE you remove the top half of the console. This way you don't waste time if it happens to have disconnected on the motherboard end.

By the way, the Sanyo TRY and the Goldstar models use the same drive just mounted in a different frame.

bitrate wrote:Start by checking the other end of it BEFORE you remove the top half of the console. This way you don't waste time if it happens to have disconnected on the motherboard end.

Hum... This is a little bit scary since im not very familiar with taking things like this apart.. Im not sure i understand what you mean by checking the other end? To check the ribbon on the tray side of things without removing the top half?

I might try unscrewing it and see if i can see what you mean that way, but id hate to have to do this.. Im afraid ill break the plastic bits, and these things are expensive to replace..

grimm wrote:
Hum... This is a little bit scary since im not very familiar with taking things like this apart.. Im not sure i understand what you mean by checking the other end? To check the ribbon on the tray side of things without removing the top half?

I might try unscrewing it and see if i can see what you mean that way, but id hate to have to do this.. Im afraid ill break the plastic bits, and these things are expensive to replace..

Sorry for the confusion. I typed that while I was in a bit of a hurry.

What I meant was that you should try to make sure that the two ribbon cables coming from the CD drive are seated properly in the motherboard before fully removing the CD drive from the top half of the console. This can save you time and frustration if it ends up being the trouble spot.

Tried to the best of my ability to disassemble it, i got as far as disconnecting the heat shields, and to the plastic slide bit of the cdrom, but i could not get the cdrom to loosen from that slide/harness or whatever its called. The physical plastic bit that pulls the cdrom in and out of the machine basically. Could not seperate them. Also could not figure out how to get the sliders off the main piece, to pull it out of the machine that way.

However I did find the ribbon connectors, i tried to check that at both ends.

I noticed the eject buttont thing, the little board with the actual "button" on it, was abit loose.

I also cant get the motor to keep the gear assembly to keep the tray locked in inside position, as soon as i tilt the console enough, it just slides back out.. Maybe the motor is fried? The console itself turns on, as in getting a red light, but i get a black screen. Also, at one point in time, the transformator has been replaced, if that has any bearing on things.

You are probably on the other side of the atlantic from me (sweden), but do you think you can fix this console for me? I have not found anyone in europe that could or was willing for years.

grimm wrote:Tried to the best of my ability to disassemble it, i got as far as disconnecting the heat shields, and to the plastic slide bit of the cdrom, but i could not get the cdrom to loosen from that slide/harness or whatever its called. The physical plastic bit that pulls the cdrom in and out of the machine basically. Could not seperate them.

It sounds to me from reading this that you tried to pull the CD tray apart from the drive. If so, that is not correct. You need to pull the front bezel off of the tray (pictured below):

When this is removed, you will be able to pull the CD tray through the opening in the shell.
Here is a picture of what the tabs look like on the back of the bezel to give you an idea of where to pull/push.

grimm wrote:However I did find the ribbon connectors, i tried to check that at both ends.

Unfortunately, you cannot fully check it at the CD drive end without first removing the drive from the top half of the shell.

grimm wrote:I noticed the eject buttont thing, the little board with the actual "button" on it, was abit loose.

This is not an issue. It is designed to rest in a slot somewhat loose.

grimm wrote:I also cant get the motor to keep the gear assembly to keep the tray locked in inside position, as soon as i tilt the console enough, it just slides back out.. Maybe the motor is fried?

Don't worry about this either. It is not an indication that the tray motor has failed.

grimm wrote:The console itself turns on, as in getting a red light, but i get a black screen. Also, at one point in time, the transformator has been replaced, if that has any bearing on things.

The transformer is probably not at fault here. If I may ask, how do you know that the transformer has been replaced? Did you handle the replacement or did someone sell it to you that way?

grimm wrote:You are probably on the other side of the atlantic from me (sweden), but do you think you can fix this console for me? I have not found anyone in europe that could or was willing for years.

I'm in the US.
First, try to fully remove the CD drive and have a good look at the ribbon cables feeding into the drive. Carefully remove them and then reseat them.
The symptoms that you are describing, while not exclusive, are indicative of a non responsive CD drive.

I suspect the transformator is replaced, becouse there is a screw in the shell casing just below the input port, for the power cord. The port itself is rectangular, whilst it looks like the original was round? It looks like someone dremmeled the a rectangular opening, and fixed the port with aformentioned screw. If you happen to have a picture of your console of this part, i can tell for sure.

It also has this sticker next to it: "Console a utilizer exclusivement avec le transformatuer fourni", which confuses me.

I dont really have the means of taking a good detailed picture for you..

After a long time without successfully being able to boot disk images, I kind of lost motivation for it.

Plus, guys like Duenan, cybdyn, and Mario are all working on their own designs, so I thought I'd leave it to them for a while.
(I helped cybdyn with his code a fair bit, and he's able to boot games fine, and is currently working on CDDA playback emulation.)

But, for a long time I've wanted to get my hands on a 3DO, and finally grabbed a "parts or not working" FZ-1 two weeks ago.

I realized that if we could crack CD drive emulation on the 3DO, it would likely lead on to a CD Emu for the Sega / Mega CD, Neo Geo CD, and in theory many other consoles. This is because they all use a very similar Panasonic / Sanyo / Sony type CD chipset.

The other consoles may be a tad harder to do, as they interface to the CD drive in a slightly different way, but the 3DO has the best chance.

I can't promise anything, but I definitely want to give this a try now I finally have my own 3DO.

I'm aware of the previous USB / HDD products from the Russian guys, but I wanted to do my own.
If I succeed, I hope to make this available to everyone, and I'll try to keep the price down (I'm not in this for the money, that's for sure. ).

I had some other success recently with some simple IDE adapters for the Dreamcast, and thanks to Mr SWAT and others for adding support under Dreamshell, it's now running many games very well...